Its called "August", federal deficit (not debt) jumps by about 25% in August every damn year. http://www.fms.treas.gov/mts/mts.pdfIn 05 and 06 is jumped by about 1/4th of the budget, in 07 it jumped by 50%, 28% in 2008.In 2009-2011 it jumped by smaller percents because the deficit was already so damn high, we had no net positive income for any months making august seem tame in comparison.

The federal deficit surged nearly 25 percent in August to reach $753 billion through the first 11 months of the fiscal year, but the Congressional Budget Office said Monday it expects the final year-end total to be lower.

In August alone, the government ran a $146 billion deficit, pushing this year's total up by nearly 25 percent in just one month. But CBO analysts said the picture will look somewhat better in September, the final month of the fiscal year, which will produce a surplus and drive the deficit lower.

So the Moonies' headline - and yours, trollmitter - are entirely disingenuous?

Spending, meanwhile, is down $127 billion, and if that trend continues through next month it will mark the second straight year the government spent less than the previous year. The last time that happened was 1954 and 1955.

A major drop in spending came on defense programs, which the CBO said was due both to the drawdown of troops in Afghanistan and to the budget sequesters, which hit the military particularly hard.

The biggest drop, though, was to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which actually returned about $82 billion to the federal government, and didn't receive any payments from taxpayers.

So once again they're trying to push a narrative that's completely counter to reality?

House Republicans have scheduled votes this week on a stopgap measure that would continue 2013 funding levels, but they are fighting a rebellion within their own ranks over what to do about the president's health care law.

A number of Republicans have called on the House to include language defunding the law altogether, forcing Mr. Obama to choose between scrapping his signature achievement or risking a government shutdown.

stpickrell:So it's not even year-over-year, which is usually the best comparison for a lot of this data?

http://www.fms.treas.gov/mts/mts.pdfArticle said $146B for Aug 2013 so that would make it about 24% less than the $190B for last year, though still slightly above a typical August. September numbers are often positive when we have a big August, it depends upon how the spending was actually done. If you want historial trends you'd be best averaging 3 month periods.